Elizabeth Is Beaming

Good morning…

“There is a God” is the song highlighted in yesterday’s post, Light In Our Darkness. Listed are many ways the presence of God is made evident among us. After singing about hugging a 100 year old tree, the thrill of horseback riding, looking down at the world from an airplane, watching a flock of birds take flight, listening to the river run, catching fireflies, tasting raindrops on your tongue, a seed sprouting from the ground and a baby’s ultrasound, Reba McEntire sings this line: “Hear the doctors say we can’t explain it, but the cancer’s gone.” This final phrase haunts me.

Everyone with cancer would love for God to make it be gone. Not everyone with cancer gets to hear the doctors say this miraculous phrase. When the cancer spreads instead of vanishing, what happens to our confident proclamation? “There is a God.” I’ve heard many people ask, “If there is a God, why would He allow such pain?”

In our young mom’s class last week, we read this short excerpt from Simple Faith by Margaret Silf. It seems to shift the “Why God?” question to a more actionable response. On page 52, we read: “In his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Harold Kushner suggests that while our usual question is ‘God, why is this happening to me?’ a more helpful question for a person of faith might be, ‘God, this is happening to me. Now, how are you and I together going to deal with it in the most life-giving way?'”

This cancer is happening to Elizabeth. Her instagram post from Spring Break shows us what it looks like to live the question, “God, how are you and I together going to deal with it in the most life-giving way?”